State AG targets elementary school truancy

About 1 million elementary school students in California — about one in four — were truant in the past year, a problem that has cost districts billions of dollars and set children on the path to academic and social troubles, the state attorney general said Monday.

School districts in California lose an estimated $1.4 billion in state attendance money each year because of truancy in the elementary grades, Kamala Harris said in a new report. San Diego County schools fared better than many others statewide, but still lost nearly $95 million — or about $211 per student — the report showed.

In California, students are marked truant when they miss school or come late by more than 30 minutes without a valid excuse at least three times during an academic year. Students who are absent for 10 percent of a school year are deemed chronically truant, and are considered the highest-risk group for academic and social problems.

A county-by-county breakdown of truancy rates wasn’t available for the 2012-13 school year.

In 2011-12, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Calaveras counties were among those with the highest truancy rates — roughly 30 percent. Some individual elementary campuses — including three in Pasadena — had truancy rates of more than 90 percent.

San Diego County’s truancy rate in 2011-12 was 19.2 percent. Districts in the region have increased their focus in recent years on boosting attendance rates by working with the county district attorney, the local nonprofit Children’s Initiative and other organizations.

Chula Vista Elementary, Escondido Elementary, San Diego Unified and Vista Unified school districts have been recognized for their efforts to combat truancy, said Bob Mueller, who oversees attendance for the county Office of Education.

“The most common misconception about truant kids is that they are high school kids out doing something bad without their parents’ knowledge, when so many times it’s young kids who are held hostage by their parents’ challenges,” said Mueller, who worked on the state report with Harris’ staff. “The devastating thing is that the loss of learning is difficult to overcome, and it establishes a pattern for them that carries forward and becomes part of their own decision-making process.”

Monday’s report was the first statewide analysis on truancy by Harris, who called on educators, law enforcement and policy makers to find solutions to what she saw as a crisis.

“The California Constitution guarantees every child the right to an education, yet we are failing our youngest children, as early as kindergarten,” Harris said in a statement. “These are children as young as 5 years old who are out of school, falling behind, and too many of them never catch up.”

According to her new report, titled “In School and On Track,” elementary school truancy is “at the root of the state’s chronic criminal justice problems.” Missing large amounts of school during the K-6 years is among the strongest predictors of dropping out in high school, even more so than suspensions or low test scores, Harris said. She went on to estimate that dropouts cost California taxpayers more than $46 billion per year in incarceration expenses, lost productivity and lost taxes.

Her interest in tackling truancy go back to her days as San Francisco’s district attorney.

After noticing that a significant portion of criminals had dropped out of high school or experienced attendance problems as young children, Harris sent letters to parents informing them they could be prosecuted for truancy. The letter is credited with reducing truancy in San Francisco by 40 percent and prompting other district attorneys to issue similar notices to parents.

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis sent out a similar letter in 2011 at the request of the San Diego Unified School District. Dumanis warned that truancy had consequences for parents — including the possibility of a year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine — if their children are unable to resolve attendance problems.

Prosecution, however, is a last resort. Many districts work to help families understand the importance of keeping their children in school.

“The reasons for truancy are all over the board. A lot of time, parents don’t think it’s a big deal for a kindergartner to miss school,” said Crystal Cavanagh, who oversees attendance for San Diego Unified. “We try to educate them and put them in touch with agencies that can help them. Most parents want to do what’s best for their children.”

Harris urged California to establish its first data system to collect statewide student attendance records. She also wants school districts to improve the way truant students are monitored, and for educators to meet with parents when children are first marked truant.

Educators statewide have expressed support for Harris’s recommendations and her efforts to shine a brighter light on truancy. But state officials have said lack of money could make it tough to systematically improve tracking of truancies.

In 2010, Senate Bill 1357 sought to monitor chronic absence on a statewide level. But it also included a provision that the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System not be used to collect such data unless the federal government earmarked funds specifically for that task.